The Ghost of Mussolini Keeps Rattling His Chains

By ALAN COWELL,

Published: June 1, 1994

ROME, May 31—
The two moments were days apart in different cities, yet they depicted perfectly the splintered soul of Italy's neo-Fascists.

In Vicenza in early May, 200 young men, many with shaved heads, threw the straight-armed salutes of the Fascist era, hoisted banners emblazoned with swastikas and paraded through the streets, lauding the memory of Mussolini and Hitler in a display of what Italians call nazi-skin protest.

A few days later in Rome, a crowd of similar size -- this time smartly shod matrons and gentlemen in suits -- packed a salon in Palazzo Brancaccio, offering demure applause for Gianfranco Fini, head of the Italian Social Movement, the neo-Fascist party. The only reference to Mussolini was understated: his granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, now a legislator, was one of the dignitaries.

Each episode provided part of the answer to the same question: what, exactly, does the resurgent right-wing represent as Italy struggles to define its political future? Hard to Ignore

"Like many Western fascist movements, they have always had two souls," said Valerio Marchi, a left-wing journalist and author, "One soul is the classic conservative. The other is the national revolutionary."

But two months after elections that brought neo-Fascists into Italy's Government for the first time since the World War II, interviews with their leaders, their supporters and their extremist members have disclosed a movement whose most prominent figures see their political interests served by a role in government. But the mainstream disowns both the extremes of the past and the minority that seeks to revive them.

The neo-Fascist presence in the Government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seems certain to insert itself into the agenda, in one way or another, when President Clinton comes to Rome on Thursday as part of a tour commemorating Allied landings in Europe 50 years ago.

For Mr. Berlusconi, the very nature of his alliance has offered the first challenge -- at least by outsiders -- to the legitimacy of the Government elected in March, when Italians rejected a whole generation of post-war leaders after more than two years of corruption scandal. Fascism, or Healthy Change?

Already, politicians in Belgium, Germany and France have expressed outrage that a European government should embrace the political descendants of wartime Fascism. But that has only inspired Mr. Berlusconi to defend his alliance, saying that none of his ministers have any direct ties to a Fascist history that finds many disparate echoes in modern Italy.

For some Italians, the neo-Fascist leadership of Mr. Fini, who is 42, represents a break with the corrupt past, a voice for change as compelling as that of Mr. Berlusconi himself.

For others the emergence of the Italian Social Movement has legitimized a nostalgia for what is seen as the efficiency of the Fascist era.

And for yet others, on the violent fringes, neo-Fascism provides a home for the hate-laden xenophobia and anti-Semitism that Italians have never liked to confront since Mussolini's 1938 race laws turned Jews into second-class citizens.

Common to all, though, is the troublesome and pervasive memory of Mussolini, which provides inspiration for some and forces a political high-wire act on those like Mr. Fini, who is unable to deny his political roots for fear of losing support. 'An Academic Debate'

"Fascism is part of the past, part of history," Alessandra Mussolini said in an interview. But she added, "It's an academic debate, not a political discussion."

Mr. Fini, whose aides said his schedule did not permit an interview, took a similar tone in Parliament recently: 'We have repudiated totalitarianism forever. Totalitarianism is racism, totalitarianism is xenophobia, totalitarianism is anti-Semitism. And if we are asked to sign a declaration on the principles of democracy and anti-totalitarianism, we will sign it, in absolute sincerity, because we believe in it."

He did not, however, explicitly denounce Fascism. On the extreme fringes, and lurking in the hearts of some who project themselves as moderates, there lies a deeper yearning that seems to prevent Mr. Fini from making a more explicit break.

"If Fini is not careful, if he does not defend the true values of Fascism that feed his electoral base, his support will evaporate," said Maurizio Boccacci, 37, the leader of the small, outlawed Movimento Politico. His party is a sponsor of the nazi-skins. The Republic of Salo

Fascism in Italy traces its heritage to the Government of Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until 1943, when his Government fell and he became head of a Nazi puppet government, the Italian Social Republic. Its capital was in the small town of Salo, in northern Italy. Some prominent figures in the Italian Social Movement today -- the legislators Mirko Tremaglia and Teodoro Buontempo and the rightist ideologue Pino Rauti -- fought for Salo.

One year after the Italian Social Republic collapsed in 1945, the survivors formed the Italian Social Movement. Its name and imagery -- a symbolic coffin topped by a blazing torch -- traced its direct tie to Fascism's last years.